Android 10 Was Set to be Named ‘Queen Cake’ Before Google Ditched Desserts

During the latest episode of the All About Android podcast this week, VP of Android engineering, Dave Burke, and software engineer, Dan Sandler, set the record straight about why the company ditched dessert names for upcoming Android releases. The two Googlers also spoke at length about a number of different subjects, including gesture navigation, Easter Eggs and more as part of a freewheeling discussion that was recorded on Tuesday, August 27.

One of the more interesting things revealed by the duo are the two dessert names that were being considered as the next official names of Android 10. According to the duo, the latest version of Android is still being referred to as Quince Tart internally within Google, but it was set to be called Queen Cake commercially before the company decided to pull down the curtain on the fun naming convention.

Sandler revealed that Google was originally considering revealing the new Android 10 branding at I/O 2019 before deciding to postpone it to August. Burke also claimed that the Android brand wasn’t created with “huge amount of thought”, with the original founders and developers only doing “the minimum they could to get started”. According to them, branding was only an afterthought, which is why the team came up with a new logo for the world’s most popular mobile operating system.

In case you don’t know it already, alongside the slightly sterile ‘Android 10’ name, Google this week also revealed a new Android logo that includes only the head, and not the body, of the iconic, green bugdroid that had become the face (and body) of Android over the past decade.

Thankfully, though, Google is at least going to continue using dessert names internally to denote future versions of Android, which means we’ll probably still be able to refer to Android 11 as Red Velvet, Rocky Road or something similar. Burke also said that Google will keep making Android statues so that developers can continue to have their fun.